Big US-style trucks are killing more pedestrians in Australia – our research proves it

New Australian research puts hard numbers behind a trend transport engineers have been watching for years: as utes and US-style pick-up trucks have taken over more of the market, pedestrian death rates have climbed even as driver and passenger fatalities held steady. The Conversation reports that researchers analyzed over ten thousand pedestrian crashes in Victoria and found every extra ten centimeters of vehicle height raised the odds of a pedestrian fatality by eleven percent, with utes and pick-ups carrying about sixty percent higher pedestrian risk than ordinary passenger cars. The effect was strongest in lower-speed environments, and taller vehicles proved especially dangerous because they're more likely to strike a pedestrian's chest or head rather than their legs. Researchers say the pattern mirrors what's already been documented in the United States, and without policy changes like weight-based taxes or registration fees, they expect the trend to keep worsening.

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